


Children of Dust and Ashes

by gaymingtrash



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Canon Universe, Confessions, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Pillars Prompts Weekly, Pre-Relationship, Prompt Fill, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:59:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaymingtrash/pseuds/gaymingtrash
Summary: They've left Defiance Bay behind them, and now Aloth has something to say, again. Because sometimes when you break big news, you need to check in on it again a little bit afterwards to make sure you're not about to get murdered.Alternately: Two people who fancy each other at least a little bit have an earnest conversation in a pub.





	Children of Dust and Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> A [Pillars Prompts Weekly](https://pillarspromptsweekly.tumblr.com/) prompt, #47! I got _Aloth, tavern, risk_. And what is riskier than double checking someone's feelings about you when they're famously stabby and on fire?
> 
> Spoilers for Aloth's history, and Act 2 of Pillars of Eternity.

 

“Demetria, a word?” Aloth looked nervous as he jerked his head in a  _ let’s not talk about this in front of everyone  _ gesture. But then, Aloth almost always looked nervous. Demetria had come to accept that his face just did that, most of the time. 

She obliged, moving away with him to a more secluded end of the bar where they could ostensibly be waiting for their drink orders. Behind them, Hiravias had just settled into the armchair Demetria had just vacated and started trying to talk his way out of having to pay for the next round. They would have their privacy for some time, and their voices wouldn’t carry far over the bawdy tavern songs cheerfully rendered by a dwarven musician.

“It’s about what I told you, when we were coming out of Defiance Bay.” Aloth took a sharp breath in. A slow breath out.

Demetria frowned, surprised that he was bringing it up at all. “I already told you,” she said, “it’s fine.” She hopped up to a bar stool, while Aloth stayed standing.

“And don’t think I wasn’t glad to hear that—really, I was,” Aloth hastened to clarify. “But…” He turned away, and started picking at a loose flake of varnish on the bar’s surface.

“But?” Demetria asked, as she tried unsuccessfully to move her face back into his line of sight.

“Well,” Aloth said, and he lowered his voice, still staring awkwardly at the bar. “In our time travelling together, to speak candidly, I have seen you kill people for less.”

Wherever Demetria thought this was going, it certainly wasn’t in that direction. “You’re afraid I’m going to kill you?” She’d never been a good one for concealing her emotions, and her voice raised slightly in indignation. A few people nearby turned to look over at them, and Demetria stared back until they looked away in shame. The tavern keeper nearby intentionally exercised discretion, continuing to polish an already spotless glass with barely a flicker of a glance in their direction. Meanwhile, Aloth’s embarrassed flush had spread to the tips of his ears.

The flake of varnish under Aloth’s fingers peeled off from the bar in one long neat segment, and he took to carefully shredding it instead. “I’m not afraid of that, no,” he said, once it seemed that attention was no longer on them. “But I wasn’t expecting your… unconditional forgiveness, when you gave it.” 

Demetria sighed heavily. “Okay, so, two things. Or, three things, actually, to be especially clear. First of all—I’m not going to hurt you. Okay? Ever.” She took one of Aloth's fidgeting hands in hers, resting them on the bar top, and waited for him to look at her. When he nodded in understanding, she continued.

“Even before I came to Gilded Vale and met you, I got tangled up in a lot. I came to Gilded Vale for a quiet life, believe it or not!” She laughed and rolled her eyes, and Aloth cracked a small smile.

_ I just want a quiet life  _ seemed to always be Demetria’s mantra right before some disaster dropped itself on her doorstep.

She was a daughter of Magran, and trouble had always  _ found  _ her. She was only a teenager when she was first called to action by the murmurs of discontent, in a tavern a thousand miles from the one she sat in now. No music played in that place, and the sandy dirt tracked through the door soaked up the spills that nobody cared to clean.

A nearby temple’s rather aggressive tithing policy was threatening the villagers’ ability to pay their rent, and, according to rumour, the money was going straight into the pocket of the baron. A glorified tax, in the name of the Goddess that saved the Dyrwood from war.

When they stormed the temple, Demetria’s unpractised words were given weight by the wreath of flames on her head, and a little diplomacy mostly saw negotiations through. And then afterwards, in the dead of night, they burnt the baron’s house down. It was a shining beacon of their rebellion, and so was Demetria. After that, there was no going back. She would always hope that one day, the job would be done, and she could live out her life in quiet comfort, but there would always be abuses like these. Thousands of miles away, men like Raedric were no different from any of the others. 

“Anyway,” she continued, “I was involved in enough…  _ contentious  _ activities to learn that most people appear to have a dark secret they don’t want you to know about. So, now I assume everyone does, and that’s the second thing. It makes things much easier to navigate.”

They both looked back to where their friends and companions sat around the hearth in the tavern to check if they’d been missed yet. Eder caught Demetria’s eye and gave an exaggerated wink. They were probably not having the conversation Eder thought they were.

“The third thing is the whole business with Raedric is in no way my first  _ kicking a bad guy off a big seat  _ rodeo. In that situation, if you turn away people who defected from ‘the bad guy’, you have no allies.” Demetria realised she was still holding Aloth's hand, and was suddenly not quite sure what to do with it. “We are really, really okay. Okay?”

“Okay,” Aloth agreed. Demetria awkwardly patted his hand to signal her exit, and slid off the bar stool. As they headed back to the group, they were just in time to hear Pallegina speak.

“Fine.  _ I  _ will pay for our drinks so I do not have to hear another word of this bargaining.” Pallegina strode away in the direction Aloth and Demetria were just coming from, shoulders upright and feathers bristling in irritation.

Aloth leaned to Demetria to murmur an aside before they took their seats around the fire. “I think Hiravias’s deep dark secret is that he has a secret hoard of coin saved from never paying for his drinks.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [palecrepegold](archiveofourown.org/users/palecrepegold) for their gracious and super helpful feedback!
> 
> You can find me and my Watchers on tumblr at [gaymingtrash on tumblr](gaymingtrash.tumblr.com)!


End file.
